Tag: Politics

Daily Check-In 09/10/2018

Monday, September 10, 2018

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

A missing Maltese professor who promised the Trump campaign “dirt” on Hillary Clinton in the run-up to the presidential election may be dead, a US court has been told.

Joseph Mifsud, a former teaching fellow at Stirling University, held meetings in 2016 with George Papadopoulos, a former Trump administration foreign policy adviser who was jailed last week for lying to the FBI, including over his connections to the 57-year-old professor.

Prosecutors in the Papadopoulos case allege Mr Mifsud touted his “substantial connections with Russian government officials”, who could deliver “thousands of emails” featuring incriminating information against Ms Clinton.

But in unrelated court filings last week, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) claimed Mr Mifsud, who has not been seen since November last year, “may be deceased”.

The DNC is suing Russia, WikiLeaks and the Trump campaign over alleged interference in the 2016 election. Lawyers for the committee said it believed all defendants in the case were served with complaints, “with the exception of Mifsud (who is missing and may be deceased),” according to Bloomberg. They did not elaborate.

Court documents relating to the Papadopoulos case revealed the young foreign policy adviser initially tried to downplay Mr Mifsud as “a nothing” and “just a guy talk[ing] up connections or something”.

Mifsud has gone to ground.  Either’s he’s dead, he’s in such a deep hole that he hasn’t seen sunlight in over a year, or he’s already changed his name, appearance, profession, and favorite sports teams.

I hate to say this, but he’s probably dead.  Daily Check-In 02/27/2018 had a report about how his baby momma hasn’t heard from him for months, and that was 7 months ago.  Not even a peep asking how his child is doing.  It’s possible that he’s the Hide and Seek World Champion, but he’s a loose end with the Russian Spy Mob.

Simona Mangiante Papadopoulos, wife of former Trump campaign foreign policy aide George Papadopoulos, said in an exclusive live interview with her husband on “This Week” Sunday that her international political background raised “a red flag” for U.S. investigators.

She was responding to a question from ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos about her interactions with the special counsel’s team, asking, “You were questioned, as well, by Robert Mueller’s team and from the start, they suspected you were a Russian agent. How did that manifest itself?”

Mangiante Papadopoulos responded, “I come from a political background myself. I used to work as a diplomat at the European Parliament for a few years and this could be a red flag because many officials at European Union actually — it’s a cover-up for spy jobs.”

She added that she understands their concern about her role as it relates to her husband, but has denied that she has any ties to Russia.

“Of course this connection was highly suspicious. I respect the, I always said I respect Mueller’s interest in my profile because clearly it’s quite alarming, the fact that I marry George Papadopoulos in the middle of this storm,” Mangiante Papadopoulos said.

The couple married in March of this year. They met through Joseph Mifsud, a mysterious Maltese professor who is believed to be an operative for the Russian government and who attempted during the campaign to introduce George Papadopoulos to people purportedly connected to Russia.

No shit.  Really?  A good looking European woman who happens to be a diplomat for the European Parliament starts dating and eventually marries George?  Either she’s a spy, or he’s the most charming mother fucker who’s also got a magic penis.  I mean, it’s not like there’s news of a honeypot in the news already.

Did someone say honeypot?  Must be time for Maria…

 

Maria Butina, the alleged Russian agent who stands accused of developing a covert influence operation in the United States, boasted of connections to high-ranking Kremlin officials and was even paid to pursue access to Russian President Vladimir Putin for a television show, ABC News has learned.

Dozens of pages of email correspondence between August 2015 and November 2016, obtained exclusively by ABC News, reveal Butina’s hand in a pair of potentially explosive projects: appearing to arrange a meeting for a delegation of high-ranking members of the National Rifle Association with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and working with the Outdoor Channel to develop a television show highlighting Putin’s “love of the outdoors” that would feature the Russian President himself.

In one exchange, a pair of NRA insiders discuss their upcoming trip to Russia and appear to copy and paste a previous note from the trip’s organizer Butina — describing the note as “In Maria’s own words” — that makes explicit reference to Lavrov, one of Putin’s closest advisers.

“Almost all your schedule is done,” Butina wrote. “We are waiting [sic] a response from The Ministry Of Foreign Affairs — Mr. Lavrov wants to meet you and we are working to make it real.”

And in another exchange between Butina and a senior executive at the Outdoor Channel, Butina claimed her “contacts directly within the President’s office” were “VERY happy (and excited)” about the proposed program and its political potential.

“I have also just arranged for an official delegation of Russian Kremlin cabinet ministers to travel the U.S. to observe your presidential election in the fall,” Butina wrote in June 2016. “This matters to your project because THEY have already lobbied President Putin to do this show as an example of the kind of relationship Russia could have with America … and with President Trump.”

JFC, the Outdoor Channel?  What’s next, a hunting show with Ted Nugent?

Wait, they already have that?  Shit.

How long have the Russians been trying to get into the NRA?

 

As Siberian gun rights activist Maria Butinafaces a hearing in Washington, here is a look at the unusual path that led to her arrest.

She’s accused of working as an undeclared foreign agent, based on FBI suspicions that she and patron Alexander Torshin sought to infiltrate the NRA and build a long-term influence campaign with the American right. She has pleaded not guilty.

2001

Torshin is elected to serve in Russia’s upper house of parliament, the Federation Council. He makes his first contact with the NRA.

2011

Butina moves to Moscow, funded by an oligarch couple, and forms gun rights group Right to Bear Arms. Torshin and Butina meet at Moscow gun rally.

2012

Torshin presents draft bill on liberalizing gun sales, crafted in part by Butina. It fails miserably, lacking support from President Vladimir Putin.

Torshin attends NRA convention in St. Louis, and goes to Nashville to observe the 2012 U.S. presidential election.

2013

Torshin attends NRA convention in Houston in May. Three months later, Spanish police try and fail to arrest Torshin for alleged connections to organized crime; Torshin denies wrongdoing.

In October, an NRA delegation including then-chief David Keene visits Russia for a conference organized by Butina’s group Right to Bear Arms. Butina meets Torshin’s NRA contacts.

2014

Butina goes to the U.S. for the first time, and she and Torshin attend an NRA convention in Indianapolis. She resigns as leader of Right to Bear Arms.

2015

Torshin leaves parliament to become deputy governor of Russia’s Central Bank; Butina becomes his assistant.

Butina and Torshin attend an NRA convention in Nashville; Torshin says he met Donald Trump there. Butina questions Trump at Freedomfest gun show in Las Vegas.

NRA delegation visits Moscow on Butina’s invitation, meets Torshin, oligarchs, top officials.

2016

Butina and Torshin attend National Prayer Breakfast, and Torshin attends NRA convention in Louisville where he says he met Donald Trump Jr.

Butina starts masters program at AU. She and Torshin exchange messages about contacts with Russian intelligence, and a “back channel” to U.S. right wing, according to the FBI.

2017

Butina, in Washington, joins celebrations of Trump’s inauguration. She and Torshin attend National Prayer Breakfast.

2018

Senate questions Butina in April, and her apartment is searched by FBI. Torshin is hit with US sanctions. Butina is arrested July 15.

Most of this activity kicks into high gear following 2012, which lines up with the Magnitsky Act becoming law.  Everything from that point on could be considered part of their operation.  The earlier activities would have been laying the groundwork, but things got hot and heavy when it became clear that Magnitsky was going to become law.

 

A series of mystery court documents that were filed under seal last week were made public Monday, in the litigation surrounding special counsel Robert Mueller’s grand jury subpoena of Andrew Miller, a former aide to Roger Stone.

The mystery filings were a joint motion to unseal a previously sealed contempt order against Miller, who had been continuing to resist testifying in front of the grand jury, even after U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell ruled against his request to quash the subpoena.

Howell, last month, ordered Miller to jail until he testified, but paused the order to give Miller time to either come to an alternative agreement with the prosecutors or to appeal her order. Miller appealed, so the contempt order continues to be on pause.

Miller’s attorneys, after a hearing behind closed doors last month, told reporters that their client had been held in contempt but that the judge was pausing the order for him to appeal it.

Miller is expected to file a brief in the appeals case on Monday…

Miller, currently working as a house painter in St. Louis, is having his legal bills paid by a group with close ties to Trump, hoping to get this case before a friendly SCOTUS.

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

Going forward, I’m going to put all of the Michael Cohen/Stormy Daniels/Summer Zervos/Trump Foundation/New York State/Emoluments/Corruption stuff in this section.  I feel that these things deal more immediate danger to Trump than Mueller’s investigation into Russia.  While Mueller poses the greatest overall danger, New York can really screw him and his family, and there is nothing he can do to stop them.

 

WOODWARD AND THE ANONYMOUS OP-ED

The Woodward book and the Op-Ed have everyone in the White House on edge.  And it’s a major distraction, pulling resources away from the day-to-day job of…whatever the fuck it is they’re supposed to be doing.

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

ICC

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

POLLS

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

SCOTUS

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

With Bob Woodward’s new book climbing the best-seller charts ahead of its official release this week and all of Washington still obsessing over that anonymous op-ed in The New York Times, it’s possible Omarosa Manigault Newman is starting to feel a little left out.

The author of Unhinged returned to The View on Monday morning armed with yet another secret audio recording that she says was made inside the White House. Introduced by Whoopi Goldberg as someone who went from one of Trump’s “biggest defenders to one of his biggest nightmares,” Manigault-Newman came out swinging against the president.

“You cannot silence someone when they’re coming forward to expose corruption,” she said of the Trump team’s arbitration action against her. “I’m going to keep on fighting.”

And yet as eager as Manigault Newman has been to trash her former boss now that she’s out of the White House, The View’s co-hosts did not let her off the hook for being his staunch defender in the past. Abby Huntsman asked why she stayed in her job so long if she was so “miserable” and Sunny Hostin called out her hypocrisy of praising Trump’s supposed inclusiveness in the past and now labeling him a “racist.”

In reference to the alleged “N-word” tape, Manigault Newman said, “I don’t hold the tape. I’ve heard the tape. They’ve been talking about releasing it. I suspect they’re going to release it around the midterms.” She did not disclose who she meant by “they.”

“I was in a toxic relationship with Donald Trump and I regret that I was so complicit,” she added. “You know, Hillary Clinton was robbed and I was a co-conspirator in that robbery. And I will regret that for the rest of my life, that I was a co-conspirator along with the rest of the folks who helped this con man get into office.”

It wasn’t until later in the show, after Manigault Newman reiterated who she believes wrote the Times op-ed (Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff Nick Ayers) and shared the code texts she and her White House colleagues would use to mock the president (#TFA for “25th Amendment” and the orange emoji), that she brought out the new tape.

Manigault Newman said the audio recording, which was first released on ABC’s “The View” and later aired on MSNBC, was made in October 2017 during a meeting between senior communications staffers about tax reform that Trump crashed to talk about a dossier alleging collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia compiled by British intelligence operative Christopher Steele.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders and former White House communications director Hope Hicks can be heard on the recording talking to Trump:

Trump: I think Hillary is getting killed with Russia. The real Russia story is Hillary and collusion. Somebody told me, Hope, you told me it was $9 million they spent on the phony report.

Sanders: Closer to six.

Hope Hicks: Yeah, someone just said, “She’s far worse for the country than we thought if she didn’t know her own campaign was spending $9 million.”

Trump: Did you see? Nobody knows who spent it. No, I heard it was nine. I heard it was 5.7 but now they say it was nine. It was spent through a law firm that way they can’t trace it. But they traced it. One thing in this business is they trace it. And, yeah, close to $9 million. I can’t even believe it. The reason a law firm is because this way you don’t have to give any papers. But they found out, it’s definitely illegal and it’s illegal from a campaign standpoint, from a campaign financing standpoint. So the whole Russia thing, I think seems to have turned around. What do you think, Sarah?

Sanders: Absolutely.

…

Manigault Newman later released another previously unaired tape on MSNBC on Monday, in which Trump can be heard discussing the deadly Niger ambush that claimed the lives of four U.S. servicemen in early October 2017.

She said the recording is from a meeting of the White House communications team that Trump walked into on Oct. 27, 2017:

Trump: We had 3.2 last quarter before this, so it’s really, it’s really going good. And we have a lot of things happening on the economic front. I think the military’s doing good. And now, on Niger. So, what happens is we’re decimated — You know, it’s a rough business. They’re rough too, they wanna kill us.

We’ve let the military do what they have to do. And whether you call it rules of engagement or any way you want to say it, but we’ve let them do. And in the Middle East, there’s very few left. We really — we’ve done a very good job. We’ve done more in 7 months, because really it’s 7 months that we’ve started — we’ve done more in 7 months than they’ve done in 8 years, okay? And so we’re — But what happens, is now they flee, and they flee to Africa, and they flee to Niger, and countries around there. And that’s how these [inaudible] people get attacked, and they got attacked by 50 real fighters.

These were people in many cases, that were in the Middle East, that now go to Africa to try and, you know, cause problems there. And ultimately they wanna come back here, because this is where they really wanna be. So it’s a rough uh, business. I wouldn’t, I don’t think I’d want to be a terrorist right now. [laughter] It’s not a good life, but it’s uh, the only thing that — What else is there? But um, but that is — You know, people don’t say that. The reason they’re there, is because we forced them out, and it’s not nearly as many, it’s not nearly as intense, but it’s pretty intense, you see that happening. So that’s that.

Manigault Newman characterized the remarks as “mocking” the deaths of soldiers,” particularly the laughter from Trump and staffers heard on the tape. She also claimed that none of the attendees had security clearance to discuss the topic of Niger.

“They were laughing because he’s like making light of the situation, he’s saying, “Well I wouldn’t want to be a terrorist,” she said, “but it’s not a laughing matter we lost four American soldiers and four of our allies, the Nigerien troops that we were fighting alongside.”

Trump caused a firestorm after he allegedly told the widow of U.S. Army Sgt. La David Johnson, who died in the ambush, during a phone call that the serviceman “must’ve known what he signed up for.” The president denied the allegation at the time.

Well, shit.  Not only do we get tape of SHS being a sycophant, which we already knew, but Trump telling the staff HOW to commit campaign fund fraud AND him cracking jokes at dead soldiers.

Remind me again, which party is the one that brags about how much they love the troops?  That’s right, the same party that voted this asshole into office, cut funding to the Veteran’s Affairs department, and continuously refuse to expand the G.I. Bill, increase military pay, and only use these young men and women as props when it suits them.

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

ENVIRONMENT

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

#METOO

 

ELECTION 2018

For now, most of the preparation is just talk rather than concrete moves like hiring staff or organizing support networks, let alone raising money. But, say Republicans of all stripes, the preparation for any kind of challenge likely needs to get real with in a matter of a few months — specifically, before 2019.

“If anyone wants to do this, they need to start talking to people in New Hampshire pretty soon, they need to start getting organized,” said Horn. “But there are a number of very strong networks here that were built for people like John Kasich, Marco Rubio, Mitt Romney, in previous cycles that might be accessible to the right candidate.”

Such prep just needs to strike a delicate balance, stealthily measuring the environment before going public: it likely can’t afford to risk drawing Trump’s dangerous ire before that kind of campaign is ready for prime time.

“If you’re going to shoot at the king, you have to hit the king. And if you’re going to shoot, you have to be sure. So waiting is wise. Look at the midterm elections: Republicans need to see if they’re going to get their clock cleaned,” and if the nationwide anti-Trump fervor is as significant as many expect, said Ari Fleischer, the George W. Bush White House press secretary who’s become a more-often-than-not Trump defender. “Here’s what’s known that will shake up the environment: midterm elections, government shutdown possibilities and government rancor that creates discontentment — or contentment — and Bob Mueller.”

The next three months will be crucial in determining what happens in the next couple years.  There are five scenarios I see playing out.

The first scenario is that there is no blue wave, the GOP keeps the House, and things stay relatively sane.  In that situation, Trump/Pence go to the 2020 unopposed, or with only the smallest of battles, like a token run from someone on the fringes of the party.

The second scenario starts the same, but a Never-Trumper like Jeff Flake or John Kasich runs as a protest campaign against the Fascist policies of Trump/Pence.

The third scenario is that the Democrats win the House, and somehow Trump/Pence are still in office by the end of 2019.  In that case, they run against at least one or two others like Kasich, Flake, Marco Rubio, or Ben Sasse.  While Trump/Pence might have an advantage, they could become the first incumbent President to get primaried.

The fourth scenario is Pence vs. Trump.  For some reason, Pence decides that now is his time to act, and he openly campaigns against Trump.  A VP hasn’t run against their former boss since John Gardner ran against FDR in 1940.

The last scenario is GOP Armageddon Free-For-All.  Trump/Pence is no longer a thing.  The GOP field is wide open, and it’s anyone’s game to lose.

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

 

RUMOR MILL

Check out Eric’s thread on Thomas Daffron.  He’s a lobbyist who has represented Russian churches in Alaska on behalf of a Free Alaskan movement. That’s right, a secessionist movement with ties to Russia that wants the state of Alaska to “decide it’s own future.”

By the way, anytime a secessionist movement arises, there’s a Russian agent behind it.

Sometimes Eric comes up with some crazy connections, but he’s been right more often than not.  Remember all of the stuff that led to the Governor of Missouri resigning?  Eric was on the frontline for that.

 

That’s it for Monday.  As we’re getting closer to the election, we’re gonna see more polls come out on Tuesdays going forward.  Polls are interesting, but they only tell one part of the story, and are usually a week behind on the daily news, if not more.  But, they can create a feedback loop.  If enough crap hits at a time, and for long enough, the polls dip down further and further.

For polls, keep an eye out for an aggregate 30% approval rating and 60% support in his party.  That is about as far down as Trump can go before he becomes a political cancer.  Even if he has a majority in his party, that doesn’t mean much when most of the party has left.  30/60 is his core base.  Once that starts eroding, there’s nothing left to keep him afloat.  If he dips below both of those numbers, talk of impeachment or invoking the 25th Amendment might become commonplace.  Remember, Nixon still had an approval rating in the mid-20’s when he left office.

Also, on Tuesday, “Fear” gets released.  It’s probably next on my Audible queue.  Currently, I’m listening to Russian Roulette, which came out a few months ago.  I think I might start a book club page, with all of the related books I’ve read and listened too since this clusterfuck began.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 09/06/2018

Thursday, September 6th through the weekend.  And it’s a bit of a long one.

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Papadopoulos

George Papadopoulos is the first American to serve jail time in the Mueller Investigation. He was originally looking at a month, but the judge felt that he was remorseful, and cut it down to 2 weeks plus a year probation, 200 hours of community service, and a $9500 fine.

 

Manafort

 

Roger Stone

 

 

COHEN AND NEW YORK

Campaign Finance

Broidy

 

THE ANONYMOUS OP-ED AND WOODWARD

 

Getting a Shrink

 

25th Amendment

 

 

SCOTUS

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

 

 

TRAITOR TOTS

Rudy

 

FIGHTING BACK

Obama

 

Nike

 

Standing Up

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

 

Montana Rally

Beyoncé

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

DRUGS

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

PRIESTS

 

ENVIRONMENT

 

ELECTION 2018

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

 

RUMOR MILL

 

That’s it for now.  I’m not a big fan of putting so much into one update, but it was either this or miss a couple really big developments.  Butina and Erickson are about to flip on each other, Kavanaugh’s caught in the middle of committing perjury several times, Cory Booker is facing possible explosion from the Senate for showing the lengths of the GOP’s corruption and cover-up, Trump is provably batshit crazy, we have multiple stories showing how close we’ve come to a full-scale war with everyone from North Korea to Canada, and Barack Obama is back in the game.

I’m curious about the timing of all of this.  It’s almost like everything coming at once to breach the gates of the White House.  And it’s not just these attacks, but combined with ALL of the investigations, lawsuits, inquiries, and protests they’re facing, it’s just a matter of time until something breaks.

I should be back to a semi-regular schedule this week.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

 

 

 

 

 

Daily Check-In 09/05/2018

Wednesday, September 5, 2018.  I’d like to apologize in advance.  I’m going on a trip the next couple days, and need to get things ready.  For that to happen and not be completely swamped, I said to myself “I could really use a slow news day.”

Me and my big mouth.

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Jerome Corsi, a conspiracy theorist with links to both ex-Trump aide Roger Stone and Infowars host Alex Jones, has been subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., Friday as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe, his attorney says.

Corsi, who has written such books as “Where’s the Birth Certificate?” and “Killing the Deep State: The Fight to Save President Trump” will fully comply with the Mueller team’s subpoena, according to attorney David Gray.

 

Gray told NBC News he expects his client will be questioned about his contacts and communications with Stone.

Questions have long swirled about Stone’s possible interactions with WikiLeaks and hacker Guccifer 2.0 during the 2016 campaign, when both entities were releasing Democratic emails that had been hacked by Russian intelligence agents.

We’re up to about ten known associates of Roger Stone that have been requested to appear before a grand jury.  That’s quite a lot for a nothing burger.

An American political consultant who is cooperating with federal prosecutors and has admitted in court that he steered $50,000 from a Ukrainian politician to Donald Trump’s inaugural committee is among potential witnesses listed in the upcoming trial in Washington for Paul Manafort.

W. Samuel Patten pleaded guilty on Friday in federal court to failing to register as a foreign lobbyist while working on behalf of a Ukrainian political party.

On Wednesday, as part of pretrial activity in Washington, Patten’s name was among those of 120 people who might testify or be mentioned at the trial of Trump’s former campaign chairman set to open Sept. 24, according to court filings.

In his plea deal, Patten said he was helped by a Russian national who has been linked to Russian intelligence by U.S. prosecutors and who was also an associate of Manafort’s.

The list of people who may testify or be referred to includes many of the vendors, accountants and investigators who took the stand at the recently completed trial in Alexandria, Va., where Manafort was convicted of eight of 18 tax- and bank-fraud charges. But the list for the D.C. trial also includes 23 Ukrainian and four European politicians.

Also on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the District warned attorneys for both sides to drop “unduly prejudicial” tactics they deployed in Virginia.

Jackson postponed ruling on the most contentious requests from the defense and prosecutors to exclude what they see as biasing evidence from the trial.

But in a two-hour-long hearing, Jackson said she followed reports from Manafort’s trial in Virginia and ordered both sides to avoid duplicating some approaches they took there.

 

THE ANONYMOUS OP ED

President Trump is facing a test to his presidency unlike any faced by a modern American leader.

It’s not just that the special counsel looms large. Or that the country is bitterly divided over Mr. Trump’s leadership. Or even that his party might well lose the House to an opposition hellbent on his downfall.

The dilemma — which he does not fully grasp — is that many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.

I would know. I am one of them.

To be clear, ours is not the popular “resistance” of the left. We want the administration to succeed and think that many of its policies have already made America safer and more prosperous.

But we believe our first duty is to this country, and the president continues to act in a manner that is detrimental to the health of our republic.

That is why many Trump appointees have vowed to do what we can to preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting Mr. Trump’s more misguided impulses until he is out of office.

The root of the problem is the president’s amorality. Anyone who works with him knows he is not moored to any discernible first principles that guide his decision making.

The root of the problem is the president’s amorality. Anyone who works with him knows he is not moored to any discernible first principles that guide his decision making.

Although he was elected as a Republican, the president shows little affinity for ideals long espoused by conservatives: free minds, free markets and free people. At best, he has invoked these ideals in scripted settings. At worst, he has attacked them outright.

In addition to his mass-marketing of the notion that the press is the “enemy of the people,” President Trump’s impulses are generally anti-trade and anti-democratic.

Don’t get me wrong. There are bright spots that the near-ceaseless negative coverage of the administration fails to capture: effective deregulation, historic tax reform, a more robust military and more.

But these successes have come despite — not because of — the president’s leadership style, which is impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective.

From the White House to executive branch departments and agencies, senior officials will privately admit their daily disbelief at the commander in chief’s comments and actions. Most are working to insulate their operations from his whims.

Meetings with him veer off topic and off the rails, he engages in repetitive rants, and his impulsiveness results in half-baked, ill-informed and occasionally reckless decisions that have to be walked back.

“There is literally no telling whether he might change his mind from one minute to the next,” a top official complained to me recently, exasperated by an Oval Office meeting at which the president flip-flopped on a major policy decision he’d made only a week earlier.

…

Astute observers have noted, though, that the rest of the administration is operating on another track, one where countries like Russia are called out for meddling and punished accordingly, and where allies around the world are engaged as peers rather than ridiculed as rivals.

On Russia, for instance, the president was reluctant to expel so many of Mr. Putin’s spies as punishment for the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain. He complained for weeks about senior staff members letting him get boxed into further confrontation with Russia, and he expressed frustration that the United States continued to impose sanctions on the country for its malign behavior. But his national security team knew better — such actions had to be taken, to hold Moscow accountable.

This isn’t the work of the so-called deep state. It’s the work of the steady state.

Given the instability many witnessed, there were early whispers within the cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment, which would start a complex process for removing the president. But no one wanted to precipitate a constitutional crisis. So we will do what we can to steer the administration in the right direction until — one way or another — it’s over.

The bigger concern is not what Mr. Trump has done to the presidency but rather what we as a nation have allowed him to do to us. We have sunk low with him and allowed our discourse to be stripped of civility

…

There is a quiet resistance within the administration of people choosing to put country first. But the real difference will be made by everyday citizens rising above politics, reaching across the aisle and resolving to shed the labels in favor of a single one: Americans.

Well, that just fucking happened.  I’m not exactly sure who this was, and I honestly don’t want to know until till this shit is over.  Knowing who they are takes away from the spirit of the message, and that is that Trump is dangerous.  He’s so dangerous that the people that would normally do the boring work of running the government have to actively run interference for this douche taco.  He’s a clear and present danger to the republic.

Now, in a normal universe, with a not clearly insane person as President, people would have resigned en masse over this level of evil.  Instead, we haven’t seen that in this administration.  We haven’t had a long string of people leaving in protest.  Why?

Like I’ve said many times, if this were in a normal universe, those people leaving in protest would produce shame in the office holder.  There would be inquiries, hearings, and the person leaving in protest would be replaced with a qualified candidate capable of doing the job.

We’re not in a normal universe.  In TrumpWorld, the office holder is incapable of feeling shame.  The corrupt GOP will only hold hearings about Hilary’s email server, and that person that left would be replaced by a Trump sycophant.  For some positions that might not sound terrible, but what about important things like the National Security Council or the Secretary of Defense?  There have been half a dozen stories in the last 48 hours about Jim Mattis heading Trump off on starting wars with Iran, North Korea, China, Sudan, Canada, and the NFL.  Imagine if one of Trump’s yes men was in Mattis’s position when the order to assassinate Assad came through, or to preemptively attack North Korea.  We would be stuck in another needless war, and young people would be dying a meaningless death because a madman ordered it and no one said no.

Now, that does bring up another important point.  The job of the military is to follow the chain of command and execute all lawful orders of the Commander In Chief.  Notice the word lawful?  We’ve never had senior staff members flat out ignore the orders of a President before, but we’ve also never had a bad, mad President before.  We’ve had bad Presidents (Buchanan, Pierce, Wilson) and we’ve had mad Presidents (Jackson, Johnson, Nixon), but we’ve never had both.  Earlier tonight with my wife I compared Trump to Joffrey, but then I had to retract it because a Lannister, unlike a Trump, always pays their debts.

 

WOODWARD

This side of the n-word, “dumb Southerner” is maybe the most impactful epithet you can throw at someone in the South. “Mentally retarded,” another term Trump reportedly used to describe Sessions, is also high on the list. Trump has since tweeted a denial of using either term.
Calling Southerners some version of dumb is so effective that even Southerners do it to get under each other’s skin.
It stings us all, black and white. We are tired of having to remind people that we don’t “talk different” any more than do Bostonians or Bronx residents, that the pace of the words that flow from our mouths is not indicative of the intellectual activity taking place inside our heads.
That’s why even Trump ally Senator Johnny Isakson of Georgia, said “I resent that” when asked about Trump’s use of the epithet.
A version of the slur was used in 2000 by a high-profile South Carolina state senator, Arthur Ravenel, for whom one of the longest cable-stayed bridges in North America is named, because the National Association of Colored People initiated an economic boycott of South Carolina to protest the flying of the Confederate flag at the Statehouse.

President Trump is livid at the betrayal and stunning allegations in Bob Woodward’s forthcoming “Fear,” but limited in his ability to fight back because most of the interviews were caught on hundreds of hours of tape, officials tell Axios.

The big picture: The book, out Tuesday from Simon & Schuster, re-creates — verbatim — page after page of private conversations with him. The 420-page portrait is all the more damaging because many of the scenes concern foreign policy and national security — truly heavy stuff.

Some choice cuts, reflecting the way administration officials and alumni depicted Trump to Woodward:

  • Trump to James Clapper, then Director of National Intelligence, who briefed him at Trump Tower during the transition on the intelligence community’s findings that Putin had interfered in the election: “l don’t believe in human sources … These are people who have sold their souls and sold out their country … I don’t trust human intelligence and these spies.”
  • Defense Secretary James Mattis, to laughter, a month after Trump took office: “Secretaries of Defense don’t always get to choose the president they work for.”
  • Trump to Tom Bossert, the president’s adviser for homeland security, cyber security and counterterrorism, who asked Trump if he had a minute: “I want to watch the Masters. … You and your cyber … are going to get me in a war — with all your cyber shit.”
  • “Trump was given a Reader’s Digest version of the Hezbollah briefing.”
  • Stephen Miller to Reince Priebus after Trump had ordered his first chief of staff to get the resignation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions: “We’re in real trouble. Because if you don’t get the resignation, he’s going to think you’re weak. If you get it, you’re going to be part of a downward-spiral calamity.”

“Trump was editing an upcoming speech with [then-staff secretary Rob] Porter. Scribbling his thoughts in neat, clean penmanship, the president wrote, ‘TRADE IS BAD.'”

  • Former White House economic adviser Gary Cohn told Trump: “You have a Norman Rockwell view of America.”
  • “Several times Cohn just asked the president, ‘Why do you have these views [on trade]?’ ‘I just do,’ Trump replied. ‘I’ve had these views for 30 years.’ ‘That doesn’t mean they’re right,’ Cohn said. ‘I had the view for 15 years I could play professional football. It doesn’t mean I was right.'”

The book’s last paragraph: “[I]n the man and his presidency [former Trump lawyer John] Dowd had seen the tragic flaw. In the political back-and-forth, the evasions, the denials, the tweeting, the obscuring, crying ‘Fake News,’ the indignation, Trump had one overriding problem that Dowd knew but could not bring himself to say to the president: ‘You’re a f@#$ing liar.'”

Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis lashed out at Sean Spicer after the former White House press secretary repeatedly tried to get him to go on Sunday-morning talk shows, according to the journalist Bob Woodward’s soon-to-be-released book, a partial passage of which was tweeted by an Associated Press reporter on Tuesday.

Spicer apparently tried numerous times to get the secretary of defense to go on television, finally causing an exasperated Mattis to respond with a statement far clearer than a simple “no.”

“Sean,” Mattis said, according to the excerpt of the book, “Fear,” tweeted by the AP’s Zeke Miller. “I’ve killed people for a living. If you call me again, I’m going to f—ing send you to Afghanistan. Are we clear?”

 

 

SCOTUS

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

 

TRAITOR TOTS

Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) may have illegally spent campaign funds on at least five women who are not his wife — whom he has blamed for financial wrongdoing that has gotten them both indicted.

The California Republican and his wife Margaret were indicted last month on 60 counts related to spending more than $250,000 in campaign cash on themselves, but prosecutors say the “family values” lawmaker may have spent some of that on women with whom he was having a “personal relationship,” reported The San Diego Union-Tribune.

The Hunters overdrew their bank account more than 1,100 times in seven years and were penalized nearly $38,000 in overdraft and other fees, and they also maxed out their credit cards and were hit with about $24,600 in fees and penalties.

Prosecutors say the congressman spent some of the campaign money on five individuals living in Washington, D.C.

Defense attorney Gregory Vega wrote a letter to the Department of Justice complaining that prosecutors had notified him that they have photos of an intoxicated Hunter and some of those women.

“While there may be evidence of infidelity, irresponsibility or alcohol dependence, once properly understood, the underlying facts do not equate to criminal activity,” Vega wrote.

Politico reported in February that Hunter had a reputation for partying and that federal investigators had been eyeing his activities, but the 41-year-old Hunter dismissed the reports as “tabloid trash.”

Hunter and then President Donald Trump have blamed the indictment on partisan bias, without any proof, within the Department of Justice intended to sway the midterm elections.

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

ILLINOIS

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

ELECTION 2018

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

RUMOR MILL

 

That’s it for today.  And I’m back to posting an article on time, at least for tonight.

Like I said earlier, I’ll be traveling for the next couple days.  While I’ll still keep track of the developing news, I might not be able to get a post up for Thursday and Friday.  Worst case scenario, I’ll have something up on Saturday covering both days.  Or, I’ll change the format if I don’t have time to do a full post.

Now that I’ve said that I’ll be busy, watch the Cabinet push for the 25th Amendment or New York state put out a warrant for Donnie Jr., or Putin orders the Pee Tape to be released.  If any of those happen, I apologize in advance.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

 

Daily Check-In 09/04/2018

Tuesday, September 4, 2018

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III told President Trump’s lawyers in a letter Friday that he will accept written answers from Trump to questions about whether his campaign coordinated with Russia to tilt the 2016 election in his favor, according to two people briefed on the communication.

Mueller did not rule out interviewing the president as part of his wide-ranging inquiry. His Friday letter indicated that he may revisit his long-running request to pose questions to Trump directly about Russia’s activities during the campaign after reviewing his answers.

And the special counsel left open the possibility that he may still try to press Trump in person about a second piece of his investigation: whether the president has sought to block the probe since taking office.

On potential obstruction-of-justice issues, “he said he’d assess it down the road,” said one person familiar with Mueller’s letter who requested anonymity to discuss private communications. “They’re essentially saying, ‘We’ll deal with this at a later date.’”

Before diving into this, I need to clarify something.  This story was originally broken by Maggie Haberman at the New York Times.  I’ve covered Maggie’s “access journalism” before. (Daily Check-In 01/25/2018, Daily Check-In 07/26/2018)

This is an interesting development.  While I’m not completely surprised by this move, I wasn’t expecting it, either.  This letter was delivered on Daily Check-In 08/31/2018.  That was the day that Sam Patten was charged with a FARA violation and right after George Papadopoulos confirmed that Trump gave his approval for his Russian activities.

From what I’m seeing, there are a few different arguments to be made about why this is happening.  I’ve seen responses ranging from “Mueller’s toast” to “Trump is so screwed Mueller doesn’t need anything.”

Here’s what I think.  If Mueller is still negotiating with Trump’s lawyers, it means he wants or needs their input.  He might need it to complete his investigation, to at least give the appearance that they’re only getting around to this now.  It could also be a delaying tactic.  Once Mueller interviews Trump, or if the possibility no longer exists, there will be immense pressure to finish this investigation as soon as possible.  But, by keeping this in a state of limbo, Mueller’s team continues their work on other fronts.

As much as we like to talk about how much Mueller knows, their team is a black box.  Nothing escapes from their cone of silence.  Nobody knows what they’re doing.  All of the information we’ve received over the past year and a half has been from following the court cases and from second and third hand accounts of interviews.  We know some of the people they’re working with, or getting evidence from, but that’s it.  We assume that they have a ton more information than what has appeared in the press, but we’re still on the outside looking in.

Plus, this was a Maggie Haberman story.  There’s a pattern to how these stories go…

  1. Something bad happens to Trump or the White House.
  2. Trump needs to bitch about something or get a story to the press to distract from it.
  3. Trump calls his frenemy Maggie Haberman.
  4. They talk for a while, and she gets him to tell her some juicy info that he’s purposefully leaking.
  5. Maggie confirms it with another source or asks another journalist to confirm what she heard.
  6. Maggie publishes Trump’s distraction piece.

I’m wondering what Trump’s trying to cover up.

 

SCOTUS

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

Corruption

 

 Fear

Here we go, here’s what Trump wants to distract from.  Bob Fucking Woodward.  He has a new book coming out next week called Fear, about the inner workings of the Trump White House, and how insanely stupid everything is.

If this story sounds familiar, think Fire and Fury, but by one of the reporters who took down Nixon by reporting on Watergate.  Bob interviewed EVERYONE, and has hundreds of hours on tape.  All of it, from the low-level staffers to the senior members of the administration, all point to the same conclusion: Trump is unfit to serve as President.

I know, right.  This comes as a shock to… like 4 people at this point, but the amazing levels that the staff go to just to keep Trump from causing an active crisis every day is astounding.  Here are some examples mentioned in the book:

  • Trump wanted to cancel all trade with South Korea, and almost did until one of his advisers took the letter from his desk and hid it.
  • Trump called his speech repudiating the Neo-Nazis at Charlottesville the “biggest fucking mistake of my life.”
  • Trump repeatedly called Jeff Sessions a retard, a moron, and would make fun of his accent, his height, and the way he dressed.
  • Trump ordered the assassination of the Syrian President (a big no-no), and when he hung up on SecDef James Mattis, Mattis calmly said to everyone in the room “We’re not going to do any of that.”

And it’s not like most of the staff look good in the book, either.  The descriptions fall into three categories.

  1. People trying to keep the government working for the good of the country.
  2. People along for the ride who can’t figure out what they do.
  3. People trying to abuse the system to get what they want out of it.

The first group consists of people like Jim Mattis, H.R. McMaster, and to an extent John Kelly.   This also includes the nameless staffers who keep the wheels of government spinning.

The second group are people like Ivanka and Jared, or Omarosa.  They’re there, but no one knows what they were doing.  They helped Trump get elected, but now just take up space.

The third, and most vile, are the opportunists like Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller.  They are actively perverting their positions to push their corrupt, hate-filled agendas.  Accounts like these will help sort the collaborators from the witnesses.

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

NFL

I really hope that these racist white pieces of shit don’t try to adopt Converse as the footwear of choice for their klan rally.  Not only is Converse owned by Nike, but they’ve already co-opted hand signs, white polo shirts, khakis, tiki torches, bald heads, and being a fat white guy.  There’s not much left for the rest of us.

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

TALKING ABOUT RACE

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

#METOO

 

PRIESTS

 

ELECTION 2018

 

 

 

RUMOR MILL

 

That’s it for Tuesday.  Kavanaugh’s hearing is taken most of the oxygen out of the room, and it’s a little depressing to be honest.  Watching this shitshow proceed from the most corrupt political party this side of the old Soviet Union makes my skin crawl.  Grassely and the Republicans are trying to ram Kavanaugh through this nomination with no remorse, no compunction of decency, and no respect for their own rules. Kavanaugh is corrupt, lacks all basis of ethics, and the fact that he holds the views that a President is above the law and yet was nominated by an unindicted co-conspirator to a lifetime position for the highest court in the land makes me sick.  There is an active cover-up going on at this point to railroad him onto the court.

I am honestly afraid at this point for what comes next.  Removing a Supreme Court Justice is the same process for removing a President: Impeachment and trial in the Senate.  I’m worried that someone, thinking they’re on the right side of history, will see him and try to pull a Pelican Brief move of their own.  In a future post, I’ll recommend how to fix the courts in the future, but for right now, I’m nervous.

One thing that does help is stepping back and looking at everything in the large picture.  There are multiple investigations into Trump’s world from several jurisdictions, the blatant corruption is on display for the world to see, and the old white men in power will, sooner rather than later, die of natural causes and be replaced by younger, darker, smarter men and women.

It’s just hard to remember that from a distance.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur